Comments on: Key Art Vote Coming Up Quickly

By: Alan Goldsmith

Alan Goldsmith — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:04:40 +0000

Don’t worry. The city will no doubt have a couple of officers guarding the fountain. AND we can pay for this by raising the water rates again. We’re already doing that with some of the costs for the build out already.

By: Rod Johnson

Rod Johnson — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 02:19:29 +0000

It happens on Ingalls Plaza from time to time. Usually civilization manages to continue somehow.

By: Cosmonican

Cosmonican — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:01:34 +0000

Hate to point out that the conceptual view I have missed so far is the one showing what happens after some prankster unloads a bottle of dishwashing soap into the fountain. Big clumps of soap bubbles on down to Main Street and beyond? Maybe the holes up at the top of the sculpture will give the bubbles some lift.

By: yet another

yet another — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:04:27 +0000

Edward and Tom -- Thanks for the clarification on punch card ancestry. Didn't know the lineage went that far back, having assumed it was all post-WWII. It's interesting that the 1890 census gave Hollerith his big break, with the subsequent manufacturing venture going on to become IBM. Reading those links also recalled the mid-century axiom, "Do Not Bend, Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate" -- which might make appropriate text for a plaque next to the Dreiseitl sculpture. With Jacquard's 200-year-old loom in mind, the word "spindle" in this phrase may have originally referenced an occupational hazard faced by punch cards when employed in textile production. Apparently, as noted in Wikipedia, his loom was based in part on a model from the early 18th century which relied on paper tape -- a related technology also later appearing in computers some 250 years later.

By: Tom Brandt

Tom Brandt — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 02:34:31 +0000

Though the article Ed links to doesn't mention it, Hollerith based his cards on the punched cards used to control Jacquard textile looms, which were developed in the early 1800s. A former client of mine, a rug manufacturer in South Carolina, still had a few of these looms in operation in the late 1990's. Unfortunately, I did not get a hold of one their cards after they took the machines out of production and replaced them with computer-controlled looms.

By: Edward Vielmetti

Edward Vielmetti — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 02:19:14 +0000

Hollerith cards were around before there were computers; here's a photo of a reader from the 1930s.

By: yet another

yet another — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:03:54 +0000

Maybe this shows my age: it looks a lot like an oversized, surrealist, 70s-era computer punch card — as one might have been portrayed in Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory, placed alongside the flowing, bending watches (though with less warp, and assuming Dali could envision such a card back in 1930). On the other hand, a punch card would shape itself a bit like this after you accidentally spilled some water on it. On the third hand, I do like the idea of a computer card large enough to provide you a steady, gentle morning shower while standing under it.

And as I’ve written elsewhere, this $1 million wonder ideally belongs not at city hall, but down at First & William, in the temporary downtown parking lot slated to become a $3 million patch of Greenway. Combining these two financially indulgent projects into one would create a monument to the misdirected spending priorities of both the Council’s political majority as well as their best-organized opponents. Plus, the giant computer card would look terrific while artfully directing high Allen Creek floodway waters following an enormous rainstorm.

By: Mary Morgan

Mary Morgan — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:44:25 +0000

The “municipal center task force” is the task force that was formed by AAPAC to make recommendations on public art at the municipal center. Their recommendations are then considered by AAPAC, which makes its own recommendations to city council. The building is also referred to as the new police/courts building, under construction next to city hall.

By: Vivienne Armentrout

Vivienne Armentrout — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:22:17 +0000

What is the “municipal center task force” and to what building does it refer?

By: Mary Morgan

Mary Morgan — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:19:24 +0000

We’ve updated the article to reflect two special meetings that have been scheduled: A special meeting of the municipal center task force has been scheduled for Monday, Oct. 19 from 1-2:30 p.m. at the City Center’s 7th floor conference room, 220 E. Huron St. Also on Monday, a special meeting of the Public Art Commission is set for 5:30 p.m. at the same location.